Dr. Suess' Birthday

If there's anything we love in our family, it's reading books together.  If there's anything we love more than reading books in our family, it's reading Dr. Suess books together!  Emma has always loved Dr. Suess and could quote "Green Eggs and Ham" from the time she could barely talk.  Every year since Emma's been two, we've done a little something to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday.  Some years we go to the library for Dr. Suess parties, we read our favorite Suess books together, or make snacks to commemorate his birthday.  It has become "Read Across America Day". 

This year, I made Cat in the Hat Biscuits for breakfast.  The top biscuits I put in a mini muffin pan and they turned out a little too dark, but you get the idea.  We used red raspberry jam inbetween to give it the red and white Cat in the Hat look. 



Emma had a celebration at her school and did a readathon.  So they got to wear their jammies to school.  We also did her hair like Cindy Lou Hoo from "The Grinch" (the movie version though, her hair isn't that crazy in the book.).  We called her Emma Lou Hoo!  We used the bottom part of a spray bottle on the inside of her hair to keep it up and it stayed in pretty well.  She had P.E. that day, so took it out before she went to P.E.  Her classmates and teacher all thought it was pretty cool. 

 Little Lucy...look who's standing up by herself!

For after school snack, we made edible Oobleck from the book "Bartholomew".  It was just cream cheese and marshmallow cream mixed with green food coloring.  We seved it up with some tart apples, tasty!

Of course, for dinner, we had to have green eggs and ham and pink ink!  I forgot to dye the ham green this year, but that's okay.   

After dinner, we read some of our favorite Dr. Suess books.  Emma's learning how to read now and Dr. Suess books are perfect reads for her level!  Here they are reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish". 

Then we watched "Pontoffel Pock, Where are You?"  If you haven't seen it, look it up on YouTube and you're in for a treat.  It's fantastic!  Or at least, I think so, but maybe that's just because I grew up with it.  You know how that is.  "Just a pull on the pull-em and a push on the push-em and the pickles go into the jar!"

I love Dr. Suess and what he's done for literacy.  Last year, I read his biography, which was very interesting.  I thought I'd share some of my favorite Suess-isms to finish off this post. 

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

"From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere."

“I meant what I said and I said what I meant.  An elephant's faithful 100%.”

Happy first birthday, Lucy bug!

We decided to go with a lady bug/love bug theme for Lucy's first birthday party! The invites were lady bug ones, of course that said "Our little lovebug Lucy will soon be one! Come celebrate at her first birthday and have some fun!"

Here's the cake I made.  The cake iteself was Paula Dean's pound cake with buttercream frosting.  Then I covered it with fondant.  I didn't think the fondant was red enough, so I "painted it" with food coloring and a pastry brush.  That was a mistake, it totally looked worse.  But oh well!  The head was a cupcake I trimmed down and covered in black frosting.  Then I used mini marshmallows and squished them down to make the eyes, then piped a dot of black frosting out.  I did a bead border along the bottom of the cake.   

We decorated with black, white, red, pink, and green!  The decorations I didn't spend much time on, but that's okay.  Just enough so Lucy had fun looking at everything! 

Here's her birthday outfit.  I embroidered a lady bug and did an iron-on transfer that says "love bug" on a long-sleeved onsie.  I made a no-sew tutu out of black and red tulle and black ribbon with white polka dots.  I also made a birthday hat for her, which I forgot to have her wear at her party, oops!

Lucy getting ready for dinner, yum!   We ate pizza from Costco and Papa Johns, along with a spring mix mandarin salad, ice-berg salad with buttermilk ranch, and strawberry cool-whip salad. 


Happy birthday to me!  Lucy had a good time...most of the time!  She got pretty tired, since her nap schedule has been changing lately!

So during the party, she zonked out.  Lindsey put her right to sleep! 

The guests...we had friends and neighbors Peperli and Lily, my Uncle Dave and cousin Alex come. 

Then we had the Bowmans and the Gertschs. These guys go to school with Dave, so we all get together and hang out on the weekends.   

Playing games!  We played a few games for the adults.  One we had was where you try to come up with as many words as you can out of the word "Lovebug".  I was surprised how many some got!  Then we did a game that is like Scattergories.  I had "Ladybug" written down vertically on pieces of paper.  Then I had a cup with categories, and we picked out a category for each letter.  The goal was to try to get words no one else had.  We played a few rounds.  Everyone did pretty well!

Three crazy toddlers - Cal, Lucy and Boston.  They have a blast together! 

Present time, thanks everyone for the fun stuff! 

Lucy had plenty of good helpers to show her how to do it!

This is probably one of my favorite shots of her taken during her birthday!  I can't believe you're one, Luce!

Here is the cake and cupcakes!  For the cupcakes, I piped out "grass" with green frosting, then I used a heart gummy and black jellybean for the lady bug, and used black frosting to make the line down the lady bug and the dots on the backs.  The cupcakes were devils food with an oreo inside each one.  Mmmm...

Singing "happy birthday" to Lucy!  She loved the candle and was "singing" along with us all!

Her first licks, tasty!  We gave Lucy the head to eat, and I thought it was fun to have the black frosting because it really showed up in the pictures!

The kids enjoying some cake and ice-cream.  I really didn't take many pictures, I got to distracted doing other things!  So the ones I took weren't really that great.  So thanks to all who offered to take some pictures for us!

Lucy just kept eating and saying "mmmmmmmm" and nodding her head when we'd ask her how it was. 

She sat in her high chair forever devouering everything, she even was licking the plate!

And, the icing on the cake, literally.  Here's a little video of her enjoying her cake!

Finally, she finished!  Check out this hot little mess!  He he!  So cute!

Bath time!  It took several washes to get all of that frosting off!

The three amigos again.  Always up to no good!

Emma girl had a fun time too helping Lucy have a good birthday.  Love how she changes her outfits like 5 times a day?  She loves dressing up, but she doesn't love when I take her picture lately.  She's trying to avoid me in this pic. 

Before everyone left, we let them fill little jars with black, red, pink, and white candy.  This was what was left, mostly the black licorice stuff.  Ha, more for me! 

I just used clean baby food jars, hot glued ribbon on, punched out circles the size of the lid, and decorated them with lady bug stickers.  Emma helped me make them and do lots of the stuff for the party. 

We also did some fun activities with the kids, but I forgot to take pictures!  They all had bags to put their loot in.  They got their candy jars, punch balloons, crazy straws, and put the crafts they made in them. 

We made lady bug goggles.  Here's Emma showing how hers turned out.  I also had stuff to make another lady bug paper plate craft ready, but we just didn't have time. 

We were going to play musical leafs, like musical chairs, only with green leafs we cut out of construction paper.  But I totally forgot!  So our family played it lots on Lucy's real birthday!  We also played "Leaf, leaf, ladybug", just like "Duck, duck, goose". 

The aftermath of the party...  I think everyone had fun, I know our family did!

Lucy's actual birthday is the 19th of February, which was a Sunday.  Many wished her well at church.  Here's Lucy after we got home.  She's sporting the cute headband Maria made for her, it matched the dress I put on that day!

Climbing up the stairs, one of her favorite activities!

We had an "E-birthday party", so the grandparents back in Utah could help celebrate with her.  We sent them an invitation and then met on Skype.  We played the same word games we played at Lucy's party.  Lucy opened some presents so they could see her doing that.  

Then Lucy ate some cupcakes so they could see her eating the cake.  And I remembered to put her birthday hat on this time!  (:  You can see the computer in the foreground.  I think it was a fun way to let the grandparents in on the fun.  We all miss them so badly and know they miss us too!

It's my birthday today!  Hello!

Happy birthday, little Lucy bug!  I hope you had a good time celebrating!  I know I said it before, but it's unreal that you're already one!  Where does time go, anyway?  What a great year it's been!  You've been such a great addition to our family.  From the time we brought you home as a sweet tiny baby to now that you're starting to get into everything, it's all been great, and we're having such a great time watching you grow.  Can't wait to see what is in store in your future!  We all love you so much!